DIY Vertical Garden

Garden walls or ‘vertical gardens’ have gained a lot of notoriety over recent years with designers such as Patrick Blanc setting the standards. Vertical gardens can come in all shapes and sizes, some scaling entire buildings, whilst others sit in offices, gardens or private homes. Below I would like to show you how you can create your own vertical garden using a wooden pallet. This guide was inspired by Fern Richardson (Life on the Balcony) & Stephanie Lawrence (Design*Sponge), and the images are courtesy of Design*Sponge.

This works very well for a salad garden. Plant mixed lettuce, a row of sweet radishes, button carrots, etc. On the top plant cucumbers and cherry or grape tomatoes. We call it our (meaning me and my salad stealing family) “the salad wall” mine hangs on the back wall of my fully covered north facing back deck. I hang a few 2 lt soda pop bottles (1/3 bleach, 2/3 water at the edge of the porch). The light refraction is amazing and that is how my plants get all the light they need.

Wonderful Idea… One thing I would like to offer: If you are considering using this for a salad garden or any edibles, please be sure to know the source of your pallet, or build your own “pallet”. pallets are like sponges, and aside from being treated with crazy chemicals like formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, and the highly toxic chemical called Methyl Bromide, which is used to treat insect infestations. (which can potentially leach into your soil) they are potential breeding grounds for dangerous fluids and bacterium. This includes Listeria, E. coli and salmonella. In fact, the concern about food safety and wooden pallets is well known, and the FDA has gone so far as to forbid the shipment of certain foods via wood pallets.

Thanks for raising this point, Tiller.
You’re right, caution should be exercised when re-using pallets for growing food. A quick Google search returns many articles explaining pallet safety and what to look out for when selecting a pallet.

Hi Joy, thanks for your comment.
The mdf board should be the same same width and height as the pallet (usually 120 x 100 cm), it can then be nailed onto the rear frames of the pallet. The landscaping paper needs to be larger than the pallet so that it can be stapled to the sides of the pallet – 140 x 120 cm should be ideal. The second from last photo shows how the landscaping paper should look when attached to the pallet.

I don’t think you want to use MDF on the back. It will swell and disintegrate when it gets wet. You might do better putting hardware cloth, which is a wire fencing with 1/4-1/2 inch holes or some type of.plywood. i just added more boards in the spaces in between. It does not have to fit perfectly and they can be screwed on.

i found a pallet that I could cut into 2 sections about 15 inches wide with some left over pieces. The left over pieces fit inside and created the bottoms for my 3 stacked flower boxes.I was able to take another scrap, screw it perpendicular to the side to create a stand to hold it vertical. Because theses stacked flower boxes are smaller than a regular pallet, i can use them on my front porch and they are easy to move.

I have seen these in my gardening books. They are called hanging gardens in my book. I love the idea, but I am not a big fan of succlents, at any rate I have not had a whole lots of success growing them. Im not sure why, Im usually have quite a green thumb.

Thank you for the compliment in your email. Must appreciated. This looks really fabo! Yes, to Brandelynn, this type of deco rating has been around for a while, and I love this. Depending on WHERE you live, succlents are great. In other places hang geraniums would do better. Getting it right, is all about proper placement!!!

You can use pretty much every plant in a vertical garden!
The best ones are those that don’t require a lot of soil (grass, strawberries, fern…). Climbing plants would be fine too.
But I’ll personally recommend to use geraniums: they bring colours and texture to the wall.